


Time

by awritersdaydream



Category: Elementary
Genre: Gen, reflections, thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-06
Updated: 2012-12-06
Packaged: 2017-11-20 12:10:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/585281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awritersdaydream/pseuds/awritersdaydream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sherlock reflects on Watson's impending leave.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time

**Author's Note:**

> So, I don't think this is my best work but I really wanted to write this before the new episode came out. I hope you all enjoy it!

She’s doing it again.

“ _You’re going to have to choose a sponsor soon. I’m not going to be around forever_.”

He’s heard the comments all week. He takes a sip of coffee; she says she’s leaving soon. He changes the channel; she mentions she has two weeks left. He comes through the door; she sighs and he thinks it’s over, but then she remarks that he can avoid this all the wants, but her departure date is staying the same.

He knows all of this.

He knows that she is leaving soon because all sober companions must at some point. He knows he needs to find a sponsor to take over, and that evaluating one might take some time. He knows all of this, and yet he doesn’t want to talk about any of it.

He doesn’t want to talk about the real reason why he has a problem with her leaving. It’s the same problem he has had with a select few in his life.

Not many people are willing to sift through the bullshit to get to the heart of what is really going on, but she is. He is not the easiest person to live with, or be around, or talk to, or even pass by on the street but it’s him and he can’t change. He won’t change. So when people get angry with him and tell him off, and leave him behind without remorse he tells himself he is better off without them.

But he doesn’t always believe it.

He can say that she was only doing her job, that she would never spend time with him had she not been getting paid. He could say that, but somehow, he knows, he would be wrong. Joan Watson does not come across as a fake person. She does not do her job for the money; she does it for the gratuitous reward of watching a person morph into their better self. And while he doesn’t understand it, he admires it.

It’s probably why she is so open to the many ridiculous and sometimes hurtful things he says.

She tries, she really tries, and maybe her enthusiasm is also a draw. He’s seen her happy, sad, mad, exhausted, and just about every shade of emotion he can think of. But it isn’t enough. He doesn’t really know her, doesn’t know where she grew up, and doesn’t know her stories from college or anything about her career as a surgeon except what her file can provide him.

_Yes_ , he thinks, _He might need her in his own way_. But the other truth of it is that she is currently a puzzle that he is slowly working out.

And he needs more time.

For some reason, the thought of her leaving before he gets a better sense of her doesn’t sit well with him, and he hates stomachaches.

And if he’s being especially honest ( _which is his true specialty_ ) he hasn’t met anyone else like her. And while that can misconstrued as romantic and mushy, it isn’t.

He enjoys a good, complex person with layers upon layers because he’s built that way too. And when someone takes the time to peel away layers, he notices they have a hunger for knowledge, an urge for information that is strong.

They are strong separately but they are also strong together.

So maybe he has gotten used to her _companionship_ , as her job title states. Then again, maybe _gotten used to_ isn’t the right wording. A person can get used to anything, really, if they tried. Maybe the better word is _comfortable_. He has gotten _comfortable_ with her _companionship_.

It’s all textbook with right phrasing and talking around the truth but what he really just wants to admit is that she has been a better friend than several of the people he has encountered in his long, frivolous lifetime.

So he broods and avoids and focuses on everything else but the fact that Watson is leaving his life very soon.

And what he is really afraid of, the thing that truly ails him is what is going to happen once the dust settles and her things are packed and gone. Who is going to give him the time of day then?


End file.
